What is the Win Loss Sparkline For?

August 04, 2023 - by Bill Jelen

Problem: What is the win/loss sparkline used for?

Strategy: The win/loss sparkline shows streaks of wins or losses. You might use it to plot sports teams, stock prices, or bid desk results. In a win/loss sparkline, any positive value (such as 1) is plotted as an upward facing marker. Any negative value (such as -1) is plotted as a downward facing marker. Any zero values get no marker.

If you have some stock closing prices, use =SIGN(Today-Yesterday). If the price went up, the sign is positive and you get a +1. If the price went down, you get a -1.

With a column of closing prices in column D, create the data for the Win/Loss sparkline with SIGN(D3-D2) to show increases or decreases as 1, 0, or -1. — Figure 1251. Generate +1, 0, -1 with SIGN().

For long Win/Loss Sparklines, increase the column width and row height to show more detail.

A win-loss sparkline shows monthly stock price over five plus years. It shows many streaks of months with gains followed by streaks of decline. — Figure 1252. Did those green markers happened after the Kinect debuted?

Living in northeast Ohio, I am used to baseball season ending in June as the Cleveland Indians are eliminated from the playoffs. This year, they got off to a stellar start, but were just swept by the Yankees this weekend. The right quarter of this chart is the ballclub that I know and love.

A win-loss sparkline showing the opening of the Cleveland Indians baseball season. A heading "2011 Cleveland Indians Started with the Best Record in Baseball". A dotted line and a textbox shows the 20-8 start, and then a series of win-loss periods ending in a 34-29 record. — Figure 1253. Win/Loss sparklines to a great job showing wins and losses.

This article is an excerpt from Power Excel With MrExcel

Title photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash